Remember the Ladies

Mary Bosanquet, early Methodist preacher and leader

I want to begin by saying that I appreciate and love the World Methodist Museum. I love the welcome video and the enthusiasm of the presenters.  I love the diversity of photos, items, and books repressenting many different branches of the Wesleyan/Methodist family.  I love the hundreds of rare and priceless artifacts (including locks of Wesley's hair, Asbury's wooden trunk, and a copy of Wesley's death mask) that have been lovingly collected and donated.  I love the non-Methodist items, as well, especially the icon collection -- my kids are Russian, after all -- and I love the ancient Roman, Greek, and Jewish coins, especially the widow's mite. 

Having said that, I do wish that the contributions of the women of early Methodism were displayed more prominently.  There is a limited amount of space and everything can't be covered in detail, but women played a more important role in the Methodist revival than anyone would realize from the exhibits.  Over half of the members of the earliest Methodist societies were female, and women served as leaders of classes, as spiritual directors and teachers, as exhorters, and even as preachers! (In an attempt to keep his Methodists from being associated with dissenters like the Baptists and Quakers, Wesley called it "exhorting" if a person spoke of her/his experience of faith, while "preaching" involved using a scripture text and explaining it.)   It is often the case that the minority voice has to read itself in between the lines of history because of scanty documentation, but many of these women's stories have been recorded -- the question is, how well and how often are we telling them in the present day?

In a letter dated March 31, 1776, Abigail Adams urges her husband, John Adams, not to forget about the nation’s women during the movement towards independence from Great Britain.  She exhorts him to "remember the ladies" and to make laws that are more generous and favorable to them than those of previous governments.  She goes on to neatly turn the words of the budding American Revolution into a cry for women's rights:  "Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the husbands. Remember, all men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”

I am in no way suggesting that the World Methodist Museum is run by tyrants or that anyone is deliberately trying to exclude women from representation, nor am I calling for a rebellion, but I regret that so much is left out.  There is a small section dedicated exclusively to women in Methodism and one that highlights the importance of Susanna Annesley Wesley, but some of the most notable women's names are missing, and what information does appear is incomplete. 

For example, Mary Bosanquet, pictured on the teapot and cups in the picture above, is mentioned by name, but the first "accomplishment" under her name is that she married the Rev. John Fletcher!  She was a teacher and leader in her own right, before, during, and after her brief but happy marriage to Mr. Fletcher, and she set up a school/orphanage with two other Methodist women, Sarah Crosby and Sarah Ryan.  Furthermore, Mary Bosanquet is the woman who convinced John Wesley to allow women to publicly exhort and later, even to preach! After she wrote to him in 1771 to tell him that she had "exhorted" a mixed group of women and men, he responded with a letter dated June 13, 1771:

MY DEAR SISTER,--I think the strength of the cause rests there--on your having an extraordinary call. So I am persuaded has every one of our lay preachers; otherwise I could not countenance his preaching at all. It is plain to me that the whole work of God termed Methodism is an extraordinary dispensation of His providence. Therefore I do not wonder if several things occur therein which do not fall under the ordinary rules of discipline. St. Paul's ordinary rule was, 'I permit not a woman to speak in the congregation.' Yet in extraordinary cases he made a few exceptions; at Corinth in particular.--I am, my dear sister,

Your affectionate brother
John Wesley

While this was not unqualified approval, it marked a tremendous shift in Wesley's understanding of the public roles of women in the Methodist revival, and he eventually came to recognize at least one woman, Sarah Mallett, as an official itinerant preacher by issuing a preaching license to her in 1787! This paved the way for the eventual inclusion of women into all aspects of Methodist life. But how many of us, even ordained deacons and elders, know her remarkable story or even the names of any of these important women? 

These are stories that need to be told about sainted women whose faithful example and Spirit-inspired holy boldness must be lifted up and honored. Their names should be as familiar and as normative a part of our story-telling as the names of Coke and Asbury.  When history is told from only one perspective, its focus is skewed, and when the valuable contributions of these other voices go unacknowledged, the dominant voice becomes the only one heard.  When that happens, we miss out on the beauty and diversity of the gifts God gives to every person of every race, gender, language, tribe, etc., and we need the perspective of everyone, especially the voiceless, in order to have a more well-rounded sense of God's all-encompassing grace. 

I am committed to doing my part to share the richness of our story by emphasizing these courageous and committed women of Methodism and consider it an honor to count myself in their number.  Had it not been for them, the witness of the Church would be impoverished and the gospel would be strangely one-sided.  And so, I encourage you to "remember the ladies" and the unique place they occupy in our family history and to give thanks for their sacrifices and commitment to Jesus Christ.  If you'd like to know more, contact me to preach at your church or to lead a discussion about our foremothers in the faith.  It is my privilege and honor to help to tell their tale as part of the great salvation narrative in which all our stories are located. 

"The Lord Reigneth"

last year, a few weeks before my birthday, Isle of Iona

Just a few thoughts on turning 51 today.  All morning, I've been receiving birthday wishes on Facebook, via e-mail and text, telephone calls and even in person.  All week, the mail has brought cards to me, and there have been gifts at the door of my office.  It feels good to know that people are thinking of you on the date of your entry into this magnificent world! 

But you know, birthdays are funny things.  On the one hand, they mark the passage of time and point towards the inevitability of slowing down and eventually dying.  But more positively, they are a gift that allows you to look back with gratitude with eyes that see the places and times when God's grace has been at work in your life, whether you recognized it at the time or not.

John Wesley frequently reflected in his journal on the occasion of his birthday.  He often praised God for good health, for the amazing stamina that rarely failed him, and for innumerable spiritual blessings.  In 1784, as he turned 82, he waxed eloquent as he elaborated on his sense of well-being:

Today I entered on my eighty-second year and found myself just as strong to labour, and as fit for any exercise of body or mind, as I was forty years ago. I do not impute this to second causes, but to the sovereign Lord of all...; I am as strong at eighty-one, as I was at twenty-one, but abundantly more healthy, being a stranger to the head-ache, tooth-ache, and other bodily disorders which attended me in my youth. We can only say 'The Lord reigneth' While we live, let us live to him!

While his memory selectively skipped over the times when he was ill and in fact nearly died, Wesley nevertheless saw every birthday, indeed every single day as an opportunity to be thankful for God's abundant grace and the ways he saw that grace displayed in his own life, in the Methodist revival, and in the world at large.   Despite losing the love of his life due to Charles' intervention, despite theological battles with the Calvinists, the Moravians, and with Charles, despite persecution from people who hated Methodists, and despite an unhappy marriage with its attendant woes, John Wesley saw himself as someone blessed by God.  He knew that he had been gifted and called to be a unique voice within the Christian Church, and despite the cost, he counted it as privilege and blessing to follow Christ into the fields and into the homes of the poor as well as into fine pulpits of soaring cathedrals.

I have several chronic health issues that will not kill me even though they frequently make life uncomfortable, painful, or even embarrassing, but on this day, and on every day, I echo Wesley's words:  "'The Lord reigneth.'  While we live, let us live to him!" 

Yet the Dogs the Crumbs May Eat

The Presbyterian Women at the church I serve always have a summer Bible study.  This year, they wanted to look at women of faith, and an officer from the Salvation Army spoke to them in June about Catherine Booth, one of the founders of that movement.  In July, I showed pictures from my sabbatical as we looked at Susanna Annesley Wesley's influence in Methodism, and in August, our music director/organist led them in a discussion of Fanny Crosby's hymns and life.  This made me think about the ways in which early Methodism gave women the freedom to speak and be heard, as class leaders, as preachers, and even as the main voice/actor within hymns.

My daily devotions include Morning Prayer as laid out in A Disciple's Journal by Steven Manskar, a friend and colleague I met when he led the Wesley Pilgrimage in 2016.  Each day's reading features scripture, a short excerpt from John Wesley, and a verse or two from Charles Wesley.  Last week's hymn selection was two verses from a hymn Charles wrote based on Jesus' encounter with a Canaanite woman who persistently called for him to heal her daughter in Matthew 15: 21-28.

It's a tough story to read and even harder to preach because you have to unpack layer upon layer of meaning and nuance, but Charles Wesley imaginatively enters into the story as the woman herself.  The disciples try to shut her up and Jesus at first refuses to help her, saying it isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs, but she is stubborn and will not take no for an answer, and Jesus ends up praising her for her faith and healing her daughter.  In the words of Helen Bruch Pearson in her book Do What You have the Power to Do, she is the woman who extended the Lord's table.

While it is not uncommon for Charles Wesley to take a familiar story or person from scripture as a starting point for a hymn before creatively inserting himself and by extension, all sinners into the story, it is unusual that he opens each verse of this hymn by speaking from the woman's perspective.  She is the person addressing Jesus throughout the entire hymn, and she pleads her case, reminding him that his grace is for all people, tenaciously refusing to go away until he grants her request.  The final two verses conclude with Jesus' response to her as he commends her for her persistence and says, "Canaanite, thy faith is great!"

The hymn apparently disappeared from most, if not all, Methodist hymnals before 1900, and what a pity that is!  How often have you encountered and sung a hymn that told a woman's story in her own voice?  How often have you seen and heard a hymn based on an account of such an uncomfortable interaction between Jesus and someone else?

It has been said that Charles Wesley relied so heavily upon scripture for his inspiration that the Bible could be reconstructed from his hymns, and here is a fine example of him mining the text and coming up with pure gold as he highlights a nameless woman whose boldness and faith will never be forgotten.  Her bravery and doggedness (pun intended) provide a hopeful example to us whenever we think we aren't being heard when we are pleading with Jesus, whenever our faith falters and we give up and stop praying.  Charles Wesley deserves our gratitude for penning these powerful words that emphasize such amazing faith and God's free grace, and the Canaanite woman's hymn of persistence should be better known, don't you think?

LORD, regard my earnest Cry,
A Potsherd of the Earth,
A poor guilty Worm am I,
A Canaanite by Birth :
Save me from this Tyranny,
From all the Power of Satan save,
Mercy, Mercy upon me
Thou Son of David have.

Still Thou answerest not a Word
To my repeated Prayer ;
Hear Thy own Disciples, LORD,
Who in my Sorrows share,
O let them prevail with Thee
To grant the Blessing which I crave :
Mercy, Mercy, &c.

Send, O send me now away,
By granting my Request,
Still I follow Thee, and pray,
And will not let Thee rest,
Ever crying after Thee,
Till Thou my Helplesness relieve,
Mercy, Mercy, &c.

To the Sheep of Israel's Fold
Thou in Thy Flesh wast sent,
But the Gentiles now behold
In Thee their Covenant.
See me then, with Pity see,
A Sinner, whom Thou cam'st to save ;
Mercy, Mercy, &c.

Still to Thee, my God, I come,
And Mercy I implore,
Thee (but how shall I presume)
Thee trembling I adore,
Dare not stand before Thy Face,
But lowly at Thy Feet I fall,
Help me, Jesu, shew Thy Grace!
Thy Grace is free for All.

Still I cannot part with Thee,
I will not let Thee go,
Mercy, Mercy unto me,
O Son of David shew,
Vilest of the sinful Race,
On Thee importunate I call,
Help me, Jesu, shew Thy Grace,
Thy Grace is free for All.

Nothing am I in Thy Sight,
Nothing have I to plead,
Unto Dogs it is not right
To cast the Children's Bread :
Yet the Dogs the Crumbs may eat,
That from their Master's Table fall,
Let the Fragments be my Meat,
Thy Grace is free for All.

Give me, LORD, the Victory,
My Heart's Desire fulfil,
Let it now be done to me
According to my Will,
Give me living Bread to eat,
And say, in Answer to my Call,
" Canaanite, Thy Faith is great,
" My Grace is free for All."

 If Thy Grace for All is free,
Thy Call now let me hear,
Shew this Token upon me,
And bring Salvation near ;
Now the Gracious Word repeat,
The Word of Healing to my Soul,
" Canaanite, thy Faith is great,
" Thy Faith hath made Thee whole."

(words as found at https://hymnary.org/text/lord_regard_my_earnest_cry)

I Mean To Be One, Too

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend on Facebook asked me to talk about any shifts in perspective I have been gained as a result of my sabbatical, and specifically she asks:  "Can you share some of your insights of self transformation? What once was, what you experienced and where are you currently?"

In many ways, writing this blog has become an extended way of answering those kinds of questions.  When I initially began it in May 2017, I saw it in practical terms as a way of keeping church members (and maybe a few other folks) aware of my experiences while I was on sabbatical, hence the name "Travels with Wesley."  Once I returned home,  I wrote a few follow-up posts, but I didn't really intend to keep up with it.  I felt like it was almost self-indulgent to continue.  After all, for whose benefit is this?  Who am I to think that anyone would want to read my theological reflections?

However, the seeds had been sown when I was part of the 2016 Wesley Pilgrimage through Discipleship Ministries of the UMC.  Traveling with sisters and brothers from across the Connection and seeing some of the places that were so significant in the early days of Methodism in their company made me want to know more, to read more, to see more, so that I could share more.  And like it or not, social media and blogs offer an opportunity to reach people that is unparalleled.  Writing from my home in North Carolina, my words can travel around the world in the blink of an eye.  Right now, there are people from 10 countries who are regularly reading this blog, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.

John Wesley was a paradox.  He was both confident AND full of self-doubt; he was both a rule-follower AND an iconoclast; he was both compassionate AND insensitive.  Immersing myself in his letters and his journal and spending an extended amount of time in places he knew so well has helped me to examine myself so that I can see where I am all of those things, too. Without putting John, Charles, and Susanna on a pedestal, because of traveling with the Wesleys, it has become possible for me to better appreciate the ways they used the gifts God gave them to live out their faith with boldness and conviction within the limits of their personalities and blind spots and as people both representative of AND different from the times in which they lived.

Most of all, viewing the Wesleys as human beings not so different from the woman I see every day in the mirror gives me hope that I, too, might continue to grow in grace and holiness and that God might use me and my words, even on Facebook or in this blog as a vehicle for helping others to experience God's love in Christ.  The Wesleys are an inspiration to me, for they show me that, in the words of a favorite children's hymn, 

the saints of God are just folk like me,
and I mean to be one too.

"And His Face Did Shine as the Sun"

After I took this picture last August, I started to delete it because of all the brightness at the top of the wall.  It seemed to be too much, that pitilessly bright light streaming over the ruins of the Iona nunnery, but for whatever reason, I didn't delete it, and now, one year later, it seems appropriate for the Feast of the Transfiguration, celebrated on August 6.

The Transfiguration is one of those experiences that defies easy explanation, and perhaps this glimpse of unbearably bright light is the best one can do.  Of course, if you are a Wesley, there's always poetry, and in John Wesley's Notes on the New Testament, he waxes poetic when looking at Matthew's version of the Transfiguration of Christ --

Matthew 17: 2 And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.

And was transfigured — Or transformed. The indwelling Deity darted out its rays through the veil of the flesh; and that with such transcendent splendour, that he no longer bore the form of a servant. His face shone with Divine majesty, like the sun in its strength; and all his body was so irradiated by it, that his clothes could not conceal its glory, but became white and glittering as the very light, with which he covered himself as with a garment. 

Though technically these lines are prose, John's inner poet bursts out as he uses words we are more likely to associate with his younger brother -- "transcendent splendour," "white and glittering as the very light, with which he covered himself as with a garment." 

Compare that to these lines from one of Charles Wesley's hymns on the Transfiguration:

Pure as the everlasting Sun,
and pure as purity divine. ~ Charles Wesley

One of my clergy friends posted an icon of the Transfiguration on her Facebook page, and she remarked that she loves that particular icon because for her it symbolizes how awake and enlightened Jesus was and how so many of us (like Peter, James, and John) are still spiritually asleep.  I read her words shortly before having a conversation with a church member who told me that her daughter likes me and thinks I'm "woke." 

Well, I had heard the expression before and knew this was a compliment, but I wanted a clearer idea of just what that meant, so I consulted my friend Google which told me that "woke" is a term referring to a person being awake or "woke up" to what's really going on in the world, especially as it pertains to matters of social justice.  I'd like to think that is at least somewhat true, that I'm aware of the ways this world has a long way to go before "thy kingdom come" is more than simply the prayerful hope of our hearts, but I know I, too, have a long way to go before I'm as enlightened and "woke" as Jesus Christ was. 

But perhaps today, as I look at my friend's icon and peer at the radiance of the sun darting around the ruins of the old nunnery in my photograph, I can see a glimmer of the majesty divine and a glimpse of the world as it one day will be and in the vision of the glorified Christ see myself made "pure as the everlasting Sun" with the light itself as my garment. 

"And His Face Did Shine as the Sun."  So may ours, when the indwelling Spirit darts out divine rays through the veil of our flesh, too.  Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen.

Angels Unawares

Most pictures featuring footprints in the sand show them going away from the onlooker, but this picture does just the opposite.  In it, you see my feet are taking me TOWARDS the viewer, which plays around with one's sense of perspective.  One of my friends who is also a clergywoman asked on my Facebook page if I'd share some of my thoughts on how my sabbatical has changed me,  about what I've learned, about how my perspective has shifted. As a result, here's a first installment in response to her query.  That is, after all, one of the main reasons I'm continuing my blog in the first place.

There's a saying that you can't step in the same river twice, and there's a lot of truth in that.  Travel and interacting with people who are different from you changes you and expands your horizons.  The world  paradoxically becomes smaller as you see how much we all have in common and bigger because you see that just because we do differ in some ways, other people aren't necessarily doing it wrong.

When I was planning for my trip, I felt there was something deeply symbolic about the fact that I would turn 50 while in the UK because it's such a milestone.  I was a little nervous about traveling alone for so many weeks and somehow felt that if I didn't do it before turning 50, I might never do it.  Silly, maybe, but I've seen it happen to so many women.  It starts with one or two missed opportunities. A slight nervous apprehension over a chance to really test themselves and stretch the boundaries of what's possible can lead to paralyzing fear of what might go wrong, and slowly their world becomes a little less expansive and then it shrinks a wee bit more every week, every month, every year.   I am determined not to let that happen to me!

I admit that I was nervous at first.  I knew I'd need assistance from a lot of people whom I didn't know, and I worried about making a nuisance of myself,  even worried that I was trying to overreach myself by trying to establish credibility as a researcher.  After all, I don't have a Ph.D.  My doctorate is a Doctor of Ministry degree, and while it certainly involved reading, researching, and writing, it is not as demanding nor is it as academic as a Ph. D.  But the Spirit nudged me to display some holy boldness, and trusting that God was leading me in my venture, I responded.

Since my Masters of Divinity and Masters of Theology degrees are both from Duke, I started by gaining admittance to their Wesley collection, and I quickly found that help is generally available if asked for. I learned how to handle priceless letters and diaries and even had a close encounter with John Wesley's hair.  I felt emboldened to reach out to various scholars within United Methodism and and also from the Church of the Nazarene, and nearly everyone I emailed or otherwise contacted took time to make suggestions, to put me in touch with key people, and even to smooth my way so that I would be able to gain access to the John Rylands Library in Manchester where the Methodist Archives are held.

I also became friends via e-mail and Facebook with the administrative assistant from Wesley Memorial Church in Epworth.  She thoughtfully made sure I knew how to arrange my stay at the Red Lion there, set me up with a kind couple who took me to the church my ancestors attended before departing from England in 1621 for Virginia, and even invited me into her own home to eat and interact with her family while she washed and dried my clothes.  They say you may entertain angels unawares; I can tell you that angels may be entertaining YOU unawares.

What does all of this have to do with my friend's questions?  Well, I discovered that I was learning just as much from being with people whose lives weren't much like mine as I was from scouring the papers at the New Room or letters at the John Rylands.  Why?  Could it be because we listened when we talked with each other and we listened together for what God was saying so we could respond? My travels weren't nearly as extensive as Wesley's, but I  encountered ordinary people who had extraordinary love even for a stranger, and their example of Christian warmth and welcome as shown to me continues to inform my interactions each day. 

When have YOU experienced grace and a profound sense of welcome as a stranger?  How have you been a channel for blessing for a stranger in YOUR place of business or at church or at home?  Who needs your help?  God is inviting you to be someone's angel as you love the stranger, your neighbor, your sister or brother, whoever crosses your path!  How will you respond?

A Joyous Funeral Hymn You've Probably Never Sung

Most pastors collect something that is vaguely religious, and I am no exception.  I own dozens of crosses and nativity scenes, and I also have a modest collection of mostly 20th century hymnals, including several from various Baptist, Presbyterian, and Methodist traditions, and I even own a German Lutheran hymnal that I cannot read.  Regardless of the language, any time I see an unfamiliar hymnal, I inevitably scan the index to see how many of Charles Wesley's hymns are included.  

I recently flipped through the 1939 Methodist Hymnal and the 1966 Methodist Hymnal to examine their respective selections of Wesley hymns. Predictably, I fell down the rabbit hole of looking to see which hymns were included and which didn't make the cut, and my attention became riveted on Hymn 518 in the 1939 hymnal, 288 in the 1966 one.  (It doesn't appear in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal.)

Oddly, I have seen the hymn attributed to John Wesley online (http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/e/r/servogod.htm),but both the 1939 and 1966 hymnals assign its authorship to Charles.  Either way, it was apparently written upon the occasion of the death of George Whitefield and attached to the published form of the funeral sermon preached by John Wesley for Whitefield:

Servant of God, well done!

Thy glorious warfare’s past;

The battle’s fought, the race is won,

And thou art crowned at last.

With saints enthroned on high,

Thou dost thy Lord proclaim,

And still to God salvation cry,

Salvation to the Lamb!

O happy, happy soul!

In ecstasies of praise,

Long as eternal ages roll,

Thou seest Thy Savior’s face.

Without trying to describe what even the Apostle Paul found indescribable, Wesley flavors this hymn with allusions to scripture and shifts from addressing the newly deceased saint in the first stanzas to posing a rhetorical question that is filled with longing, a plaintive yet hope-filled query to himself and to us.  His lyrics offer the perfect balance between marking the death of one of God's faithful and celebrating that person's entrance into the presence of Jesus and for focusing our attention on our own future experience of coming before the throne of God:

Redeemed from earth and pain,

Ah! when shall we ascend,

And all in Jesus’ presence reign

Through ages without end?

I don't think I have ever heard this particular hymn sung to either the tune "Mornington" that appears in the 1939 hymnal or to "Diademata" from the 1966 hymnal (better known as the tune accompanying "Crown Him With Many Crowns"), probably because it isn't in the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal.  "Mornington" is a gentle, slow melody that is well suited for use at a funeral, but it doesn't echo the triumph and happiness of seeing Jesus' face in the same way that "Diademata" does.  Perhaps that accounts for the change of tune in the 1966 hymnal!

At any rate, it isn't hard to see why it was included in the section entitled "The Eternal Life"in the 1939 hymnal and "Death and Life Eternal" in the 1966 hymnal.  Perhaps we ought to re-introduce the hymn to our churches for reflection and meditation and perhaps even for singing as a congregation.  Death and life eternal aren't subjects we discuss with ease, but this hymn offers a theological framework for seeing one's death in the light of the glory that awaits,  the end of all life's struggles, and the ecstasy of praise at seeing the face of Jesus for "ages without end."

What do you think?  Have you given any thought to your own funeral service and how you'd like it to reflect your faith and your life?  What scriptures come to mind?  What about hymns or songs?  I'd love to hear your responses!